Category Archives: 6-A K-12 Understanding Digital Literacies

In our Understanding Digital Literacies session, participants were asked to share their ideas for ways teachers can implement collaboration and peer production with writing. Below are some of their responses to this question. As you think about incorporating digital literacy into your classroom, consider what is shared in this blog post.

“I am thinking that when students create a writing whether it be Narrative, Opinion, or even Research it would be really helpful to have peers comment on it and make suggestions for help. The peer editing piece would be much more purposeful as each student’s comments would be logged and the teacher can see if all students are weighing in. Also, each student gets much more assistance with their work than just 1 person commenting.”

“I read Teaching Quality Commenting Skills which explains how to teach students how to write comments when responding to blogs. The five main suggestions in the short video in the article are:

Compliment the writer in a specific way.

Add new information.

Make a connection.

End with a question.

Proofread your comments.”

“I have used KidBlog and it was a great tool to get students to write. They loved responding to each other. I like the idea of modeling writing through blogging. It makes it more authentic to our digital generation of learners.

I also like the idea of using PodCasts to record students reading. What a great way for them to “hear” how they read. Do they use expression? Do they have great fluency? It is also a great way for parents to be informed on how well their child is doing in their oral reading.

The final idea I would like to try is using PodCasts to have students orally tell their stories. Too many times they lose their ideas because they are too bogged down with the physical writing portion. By recording it, they can listen to their ideas and ideas of others, before they start the writing portion. What a great way to collaborate with others to improve their writing!”

“I have used collaboration with writing in the following ways:

Students create a PSA (print, audio, or TV). They used both google docs and canva.org to create print PSA’s.

I have used Google docs to comment and give feedback during the writing process. I prefer sitting side by side, but this gives students immediate feedback and a conversation starter for the one-on-one conversation.

Teachers can use the collaboration for presentations and PD”

“We use both weebly and kidblog in our building. Both are easy to use for both teachers and students.”

Our next meeting is this week, and we want to remind you of a couple things. One, please bring your book. Two, please complete the personal exploration activity that we ended with in January (if you haven’t already done so). This is important as the start of this week’s session will build off of your responses. Here are directions for those who need it.

Respond to the prompt on how your learning in the session so far has impacted your work.

Unfortunately, Andrew and I will not be there this week because of a scheduling conflict with the MACUL conference. As a result, we are taking the opportunity to flip our session so that you can continue learning in our absence.

We have recorded a welcome video and a clear set of instructions to guide you through the steps, and we are confident that it will provide you with a quality learning experience. In addition, Wendi Vogel will be there to help facilitate the activities.

Please let us know if you have any questions. Again, we apologize for not being there. We hope you enjoy the day and trust that you will.

This is a reminder for the digital literacies group to complete the personal exploration task detailed below, but it is also an update that can be accessed by all LCN members. Here is the link to our learning guide for details on our group. Please contact Andrew or myself with any questions or thoughts.

The digital literacies group is working to better understand the changing nature of literacy and how to increase knowledge and skill in this area to better support our students. The first chapter of our book, Understanding Digital Literacies, provides a good overview of what digital literacies are, and we elaborated on the content during our first LCN session.

The group participants were tasked with this:

In the coming months,observe and take note of the digital literacies of your students as they partake in tech-related activities.

By the end of November, post a blog entry that addresses the following:

What types of digital activities you have observed or participated in with your students.

What are some areas in which they need more support in order to improve their digital effectiveness in school and beyond?

LCN Mission and Membership

The mission of LCN is to increase student achievement by developing and supporting professionals to lead collaborative cultures that implement effective literacy practices across content for all students.

The LCN membership includes: classroom teachers, department chairs, reading teachers, Title I teachers, interventionists, pre-school teachers, instructional coaches (full and part time), teacher leaders in all content areas, English Language Learner teachers, special education teachers, community agency staff and anyone interested in networking to share and learn best literacy instruction for students of all ages.